Quality Matters

Colorado Mesa University has always been focused on providing all of its students with a quality learning experience. As more learning opportunities are available, and more students choose to access all or part of their education through online formats, the university's focus on quality remains. The following is an outline of Colorado Mesa University's strategy to address quality in online learning environments.

Background

In the 2009-10 academic year, Colorado Mesa University (CMU) submitted a request to the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) to extend its regional accreditation to the offering of online degree programs. In the fall semester of 2010, CMU received notice from the HLC of the approval of its change request. As part of the process, HLC site review team recommended that CMU create a set of standards for its online courses.

In response, CMU Academic Affairs convened the Distance Education Quality Working Group (DEQWG), composed of faculty and staff, to discuss the topic. In the Spring of 2011, the working group presented a series of factors related to "quality" in online learning, and related recommended practices. The quality factors included:

Quality Course Design

Faculty Readiness

Student Readiness

Retention

Student Services

Assessment

Each of the quality factors, and their related practices have been acted upon. As quality is a continuously shifting target, the actual practices to address each of the factors are consistently under various stages of review and deployment.

Quality Course Design

"Quality Matters" in CMU online courses. The goal for this quality factor is for all CMU online courses to meet nationally recognized, research-based design standards in course design. The DEQWG recommended the university consider the Quality Matters program as the basis for implementing standards in online course design. After reviewing the QM program, CMU has selected to focus initially on the integration of the "essential standards" in course design as identified by the QM program. The additional, non-essential, standards identified by QM will serve as a roadmap for future design integrations, and faculty professional development.

Faculty Readiness

The goal of this quality factor is that all online faculty are well-prepared to teach an online course. To accomplish this goal, Distance Education is developing a curriculum to address faculty preparedness at all levels of experience.

Student Readiness

The goal of this quality factor is all online students have the information, skills, and technology necessary for success in an online course environment. To accomplish this goal, Distance Education requires all first-time online students to pass an orientation to online learning, before they are given access to their online course(s). This orientation addresses each of the elements identified in the goal statement.

Retention

The goal of this quality factor is to achieve a retention rate that is above the national average. To improve the retention rate of students in online classes, Distance Education has deployed an orientation to online learning course that all first-time online students must pass. Online faculty are encouraged to participate in the Early Alert system. Students in online courses have the opportunity to evaluate their experience at the end of the semester.

Student Services

The goal of this quality factor is to provide online students with technical assistance, and support in accessing relevant student services. Providing quality student services is a process of continuous improvement. To address this goal, Distance Education staff meet regularly with the Information Technology HelpDesk staff to assess the technical assistance requests as a means to identify potential service issues. Distance Education staff also meets with other related student service areas such as Tutoring, to discuss the use and potential improvement of services.

Assessment

The goal of this quality factor is to integrate the assessment of online courses into the institutional assessment plan. This has been accomplished through the Director of Distance Education's participation on the institutional Assessment Committee. Academic department heads now integrate the assessment of the teaching of online classes into a faculty member's overall evaluation.